The Supreme Court on Friday declined to get involved in a First Amendment challenge to a drag show ban. It was theStudents at West Texas A&M University went to the high court after two lower courts refused to act in time to save a student drag show scheduled on campus for March 22. They asked for emergency intervention, claiming a clear violation of their rights to free speech.
University President Walter Wendler first blocked the LGBTQ+ student organization from using a campus performance hall to host a drag show last March. In an email to the student body explaining his decision, Wendler called drag contrary to the"basis of Natural Law," as well as"derisive, divisive, and demoralizing." He said the"ideology" underlying drag shows is demeaning to women and could not be condoned by the university.
But when the students went to court, they ran into district court judge Matthew Kacsmaryk. Before his judicial appointment by former President Donald Trump, Kacsmaryk publicly opposed including protection for LGBT individuals in anti-discrimination laws and called homosexuality"disordered" in an op-ed.
A different Texas district court judge ruled last September that a statewide law restricting drag shows was"an unconstitutional restriction on speech."
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